A demonstration trumpeted as a way to deliver an anti-violence message to the more affluent North Side briefly shut down Lake Shore Drive during the Thursday afternoon rush and culminated with a peaceful protest beneath Wrigley Field’s iconic marquee.

The protest was not large in size, with only a couple of hundred protesters marching and chanting in the streets. But it caused a ripple of traffic disruptions that clogged Lakeview streets for several hours.

After a series of speeches on Lake Shore Drive, where demonstrators scrawled messages in colorful chalk onto the asphalt, the protesters marched to the ballpark as the Cubs prepared for a night game against the San Diego Padres. With curious Cubs fans perched on the ballpark ramps or camped inside Clark Street bars looking on, the demonstrators prayed for peace and an end to the city’s troublesome violence.

“It is time for us to pray, to pray for our city,” said the Rev. Gregory Livingston, one of the event’s organizers, as lines of police officers stood sentinel in front of the ballpark, with others on bicycles and horseback. “We’ve got multimillionaires inside this stadium, but we have God’s people out here.

“We shall overcome!” Livingston said.

Police reported no arrests or injuries.

Protesters march on Lake Shore Drive, on their way to Wrigley Field, to call attention to the city's gun violence, Aug. 2, 2018.

In the days leading up to the march, organizers conducted a series of media sessions to spotlight an event they said was intended to “redistribute the pain” that gun violence causes in other parts of Chicago. They had played coy about the number of people they expected to attend, stubbornly resisted meeting with police and hinted actions that might result in arrest. In the end, there were few fireworks.

Demonstrators toted signs and banged drums, with some calling for the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The protesters highlighted the police shootings of teenager Laquan McDonald and innocent bystander Bettie Jones.

“The reality is this: Our community is bleeding every day,” said Tio Hardiman, another organizer. “We need some resources on West, East and South sides of Chicago.”

Hardiman said the city needs to invest in struggling areas of the city and reaffirmed his position that Emanuel and Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson need to be replaced.

"Step down, get out the way, let somebody else be the mayor of Chicago," Hardiman said. “I'm not trying to run for mayor.”

Livingston was a spokesman for Willie Wilson’s 2015 mayoral campaign against Emanuel. Wilson is running again in the 2019 race.

Clyde Mclemore, founder of the Lake County (Ill.,) chapter of Black Lives Matter, marched alongside city activists because he said violence needs to end across the country. He said Thursday's march was different because it, “wakes up Chicago.”

“This is one Chicago, and we are all here for the unity of all races,” Mclemore said.

When he learned of the protest, Alex Cavnar of Lincoln Park opted to spring into action and become a "last-minute participant." The software engineer left work and raced toward the scene of the action. Along the way, he stopped at CVS to buy three cases of water to hand out to marchers.

"The color of your skin doesn't reflect the content of your heart," the 35-year-old said. "But why do we have clean streets, we have art put up, flowers? They don't have all that, they get ignored. And it's not just (art and flowers) it's the violence too."

Baseball fans hoping to get a selfie beneath the iconic marquee on the ballpark were out of luck. Barricades, along with police, prevented people from moving much beyond Sheffield. Several making their way into the ballpark questioned what was going on. Someone asked, “What are they protesting?”

Lifelong Cubs fans Barb Saltzman, 57, of Wheeling, and Steve Hara, 69, of Lincolnshire, who left early for the game to ensure they could find parking, said they supported the protest.

“When I was a principal I had some students who were shot because of gang-related shootings so I’m definitely anti violence and pro-gun control,” said Hara, a former Chicago Public Schools principal.

Hara and Saltzman said they hoped for a peaceful protest and a Cubs win.

“I feel for the people in their neighborhoods,” Saltzman said.

Inside the ballpark, Cubs manager Joe Maddon was asked about the protest and said his commute to Wrigley was unaffected. "I was fine. I drove up Lake Shore. No issues. I left at about 2:25 p.m., so it was all good,” Maddon said.

Protesters were met with a combination of support, befuddlement, frustration and curiosity from the fans and motorists they encountered on their journey from the lakeshore to the ballpark.

Julie Swislow, a Lincoln Park resident, said she wanted to show her support despite the minor inconvenience.

“It’s good to be a little uncomfortable. It’s one day of discomfort, not a lifetime of discomfort,” she said, referring to violence on the South and West sides.

Others weren’t as receptive. Some bystanders heckled the marchers as they passed.

A man wearing a Grateful Dead shirt and riding a bike yelled from a distance, “Influence children in a positive way!” After having words with a protester, the cyclist rolled away, saying, “Get out of my face and raise your kids!”

And despite all the premarch publicity, some caught up in the congestion were taken by surprise. Stevenson Renee of Bronzeville on the South Side sat in traffic at Clark and Belmont. He said he understood the concerns of those protesting, even though he hadn't heard about the event until he became entangled in it.

“This is all new to me,” Renee said. “I didn't know anything about this.”

The march began shortly after 4 p.m., and police shut down both the northbound and southbound lanes of the drive for a little more than an hour.

By 5 p.m., the drive was reopened to traffic and the demonstrators proceeded west on Belmont Avenue and north on Clark Street to Wrigley Field.

Before the march began, the grassy easement leading to the southbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive began to fill with demonstrators, many of whom brought signs condemning police-involved shootings and overall gun violence. Nearby cars continued to zip by as bike cops lingered farther back in silent formation. Early arriving demonstrators unfurled a blue-and-white banner with the message, “#ResignRahm: End the Tale of Two Cities. Justice for ALL Chicagoans!”

Other than the traffic challenges up north, the protest did not affect Lollapalooza, the music festival in Grant Park, that began Thursday, despite Livington’s call for musicians to halt their performances in solidarity with marchers. Performances at the festival went on as planned.

The anti-violence protest was the second in less than a month to target the shutdown of a Chicago expressway, a tactic designed to maximize exposure for the message. The previous march on July 7, organized by the Rev. Michael Pfleger, shut down the northbound lanes of the Dan Ryan Expressway for an hour on a Saturday morning. The full closure of one side of the busy highway followed on-site negotiations about logistics between organizers and police. Johnson ended up marching arm in arm with Pfleger and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.